Recent Marketing Dive research suggests that your quest to rack up followers on Twitter is 100% misguided — that is, if retweets and replies are your end game. Instagram engagement levels, it finds, drop off in conjunction with the growth of your follower count. Here are the most important numbers from the report:

Micro-influencers with 1,000 followers will get about 4% more Instagram engagement than influencers with 10,000 followers and the rule applies across platforms.

Interesting, right?

The findings are in keeping with Facebook and Instagram’s recent departure from chronological feeds in favor of relevant feeds. Your content, these days, is forced to compete with every other account your followers follow. Whether or not your content is shown to anyone fully relies on the discretion of the platform’s mystical algorithm, fate, and countless other incalculable variables.

TL;DR, Instagram engagement is work.

If you’re serious about monetizing your social accounts or connecting with potential customers, we’ve compiled a list of online and mobile tools for you do just that.

The first step to engaging your audience is to provide them with thought-provoking posts and articles that they’ll want to respond to and share. It’s also the most difficult hump to get over — especially if you keep yourself regimented; creative blocks are inevitable. The good news is that Unblock was invented to help you overcome your mental block by sending prompts, questions, tips, and inspiration straight to your phone.

Unstuck is essentially a self-paced course that teaches you how to shake yourself back into a creative mindset! Seriously, check it out. Once you’ve got your content ready to go, the next step is to get it in front of the right audience.

Do you every take the time to follow and unfollow users from your go-to social accounts? Crowdfire is the ideal tool for curating your followers. Note: followers not fans. Crowdfire will help you eliminate the duds so that your follow count isn’t diluted by inactive and uninterested users.

It’s also an excellent tool for automating your content schedule. The Crowdfire bot goes so far as to send you content (like a relevant blog post)— if you’re having a busy week and don’t have time to create your own.

Crowdfire will text you an article and help you schedule it then and there from your phone. Better followers and relevant content makes Crowdfire worth a shot for anyone.

This app is another great tool for cleaning house (i.e. your Instagram following). Search their accounts and follower their followers, mass unfollow people who don’t follow you back. Here’s the best part: you can “select all” and delete everybody who fails to meet your criteria in one fell swoop.

At the moment, there’s no way to unfollow accounts based on how little they engage with yours. For the time being, it’s safe to stick with the method of deleting accounts which don’t follow you back (as their engagement with your brand is a giant zero).

Naturally, we couldn’t mention our friends in the app community without throwing our own hat into the ring. Muses is both a networking tool and platform for organizing campaigns. In other words, you can use the app to connect with other members of your community (social influencers, small businesses, marketing experts, creatives, etc.) through interest and meet up groups and then, once you establish a relationship, you can organize or join a campaign around the goal of engagement.*

Note that engagement groups and campaigns are certainly not the only type you’ll discover within the Muses app. Simply, this blog post is focused on Instagram engagement. Back to the business at hand:

The most common types of campaigns we see within the Muses app comprise of businesses offering a special discount or gifting products or paying a group of influencers with cash to execute an initiative.

That being said, if you are an influencer looking to increase their Instagram engagement, you have two options: an engagement group or a giveaway campaign. When a partnership with a business provides you with a discount or prize to offer, you’ll naturally see an increase in Instagram engagement from your followers (especially if it’s a prize giveaway which requires engagement for entry).

Isn’t this stuff fun?

Engagement and interest groups are another way for anyone with social content to share it with an interested audience. Post your latest blog and ask for feedback in the comments! Swap Instagram posts you think your connections may be interested in. The sky is the limit. Muses is perfect for making connections with an naturally engaged audience. It’s up to you to come with the method of Instagram engagement.

I Done This is one of those simple and sleek to-do list app. You’ll need it to keep track of your engagement methods. Have you followed/unfollowed today? Have you posted your content in an Instagram engagement group? Have you scheduled your posts? Do you have any promotional campaigns in the works? What do you need to provide to the campaign? Do you have a deadline you need to meet?

Track the tasks you’ve already done with I Done This and make a daily list of the tasks you have yet to do. Make your list every day and check them off as you go along. The best part is that you can request to receive an email digest of everything you’ve accomplished. It’ll keep you motivated. Trust us.

You’ve got plenty on your plate (although these tools and apps have simplified your life, tremendously). Your account is nice and clean. Your content is inspired and scheduled. You’re on task and cross-promoting. Now, it’s time to track results.

Cyfe may not look like much, but it’s one of the most trusted and convenient data dashboards out there. Link up all of your social accounts, and Google Analytics, and your client accounts, and then some. Add custom widgets to your dashboard to view your data the way you like to best. No more navigating between apps or toggling across tabs; Cyfe keeps all of your important numbers in one place.

So, what do you say? Are you ready to jumpstart your Instagram engagement. Let us know if you have any other tools or apps that keep your content on track. We’re always happy to hear from you.

For a detailed look on Instagram’s algorithm changes or for general engagement tips, check out these posts: